Tag Archives: Big Oil

Leftist global-warming nuts are angry that someone else is daring to compete with them at their own propaganda game.

It’s just not fair, say the warmist wackos. We all know man-caused global warming is a reality. For the good of the planet, no one is allowed to dispute it, nor promote a differing opinion.

But according to the Fiscal Times, who sympathize with the lefty warming crazies, another group is not only challenging the set-in-stone fact, but is having success in convincing American children that man-caused warming is a myth. And worse – they are advancing the notion that the use of coal, oil and gas is actually a good thing. read more

by: the Common Constitutionalist

According to Democrats, the only thing in life which isn’t rigged is this election.

As long as Hillary Clinton is said by the pollsters to be in the lead and likely to win, the “system” is just fine – but only the election system.

It can’t be rigged if the democrats win. A democrat being in power is the natural order of things. I think it may actually be a part of Darwin’s evolutionary theory. First the protozoa, then the fish, then the ape, then the Neanderthal Republican, and finally, the enlightened progressive Democrat. That’s how it goes – right?

It is amusing that the same people and party, who claim that everything in America is somehow rigged, think it ridiculous when the Republican nominee claims that of this election – and that Republican voters are the ones this time being “disenfranchised.”

In August of this year the Washington Post claimed that Exxon Mobil is “rigging the system” against green energy. Of course they are. After all, they are the poster-corporation of evil “big oil.” “As recently as last year, it continued to fund organizations that play down the risks of carbon pollution,” writes the Post.

So “rigged” is the system that the AGs of the communist states of New York and Massachusetts, “are investigating whether ExxonMobil violated state laws by knowingly misleading their residents and shareholders about climate change.”

Six House Democrats, led by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D’OH), have filed a bill aimed at controlling gasoline prices. Styled the “Gas Price Spike Act”, H.R. 3784 would establish a “Reasonable Profits Board” which would have the power to confiscate 100% of oil company profits above a level that they deem to be “reasonable”.

I know: “You had me at ‘Kucinich’.”

Which is which?

Which is which?

Kucinich is either a naive fool, a craven panderer to his electorate, or a throwback to Soviet-style central planning. That he could find five other elected nitwits (Reps. Woolsey, Langevin, Conyers, Fudge and Filyers) to put their names on such an anti-capitalist, unconstitutional fantasy is an indication that the Far Left Wing of the Democratic Party has left the ranch.

Consider, too, what it says about “Republican” presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), who recently declared that he would consider Kucinich for a cabinet post in a Paul Administration.

Paul said his libertarian political philosophy helps him connect with some on the far left — including Kucinich, who shares Paul’s general anti-war stance.

Paul joked that if he brought the Ohio congressman aboard in his administration, he might have to create a “Department of Peace.”
“You’ve got to give credit to people who think,” he said.

The Gas Price Spike Act, H.R. 3784, would apply a windfall tax on the sale of oil and [natural] gas that ranges from 50 percent to 100 percent on all surplus earnings exceeding “a reasonable profit.” It would set up a Reasonable Profits Board made up of three presidential nominees that will serve three-year terms. Unlike other bills setting up advisory boards, the Reasonable Profits Board would not be made up of any nominees from Congress.

The bill would also seem to exclude industry representatives from the board, as it says members “shall have no financial interests in any of the businesses for which reasonable profits are determined by the Board.”

Oil companies would only be able to make less than a reasonable profit without penalty. Anything over 105% of reasonable would be taxed at 100%. Proceeds of the confiscation would be dedicated to tax credits for high-milage vehicle purchase and mass transit subsidies for the poor.
Peeling back the layers of stupidity in H.R. 3784 would be akin to peeling an artichoke. In the interest of time, I will cut to my central point.

Implicit in the very suggestion that a Windfall Profit Tax is called for is the notion that somehow the oil companies are able to manipulate the price of oil, and hence, gasoline.

Gasoline prices are at historically high prices. Despite the spike above $4.00 per gallon in 2008, you actually paid 10% more at the pump in 2011.

When we refer to the industry as “oil and gas”, we mean “oil and natural gas”, not oil and gasoline. All oil companies make a substantial fraction of their revenue — many more than half — from natural gas.

The price of natural gas has plunged to 10 year lows recently as a result of warm winter temperatures, slack industrial demand and burgeoning supplies.
Natural gas prices have fallen to levels that make it difficult to justify drilling for more. Many of the new supplies of gas that come on will be incidental to the successful search for oil.

I challenge anyone who believes that oil companies control the price of oil and gasoline to explain how they do it, and why they seemingly have no control of natural gas.